Alexandru Rogobete announces that he is going to the USA for talks with Pfizer, after Romania lost the trial for the anti-COVID vaccine
The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, announced that this week he is visiting Washington, where he will meet with representatives of the World Bank and the main American companies in the field of health, including Pfizer, according to News.ro.
The visit, which will last from April 14 to 18, takes place in the context in which Romania was sentenced in the first instance to pay an outstanding balance for the anti-Covid vaccines ordered from Pfizer/BioNTech.
Rogobete has two meetings with Pfizer
On Wednesday, Alexandru Rogobete will have a meeting with the representatives of the Eli Lilly company and another with those of the Pfizer company, and on Thursday he has scheduled meetings with the representatives of the GE HealthCare company and with the representatives of the World Bank.
On Friday, he will participate in the round table “Actions initiated at the national level: an exchange of views at the ministerial level on health system reforms” and will have meetings with representatives of the Medtronic company and, again, with those of the Pfizer company.
“The visit is part of the efforts made by the Minister of Health and the government authorities to transform the financial loss in the case of anti-Covid 19 vaccines into a real benefit for patients, ensuring access to treatments that are currently missing from the public system,” the Ministry of Health said, quoted by News.ro.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan declared, last week, that the Minister of Health and the Minister of Finance are working to start negotiations with Pfizer, after the loss of the process regarding the acquisition of COVID vaccines. He said that Romania will also request the support of the European Commission in this negotiation.
Romania lost the case with Pfizer
A court in Brussels sentenced, on April 1, at first instance, Poland and Romania to pay an outstanding balance for anti-Covid vaccines ordered from Pfizer/BioNTech, amounting to 1.3 billion euros and 600 million euros, respectively.
The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer sued Poland and Romania in the fall of 2023, to demand payment of these purchase contracts that the two countries refused to fulfill in full, due to the end of the pandemic.
The court of first instance in Brussels explained that the two countries were unable to demonstrate that “Pfizer would abuse its right by pursuing the execution of contractual obligations”.
The American group “now expects member states to comply with the court's decision,” according to a statement issued after the decision.
“We will give him the money anyway”
On April 5, Alexandru Rogobete declared that “things are very simple” and that the Romanian state will have to pay the outstanding amount to Pfizer anyway.
“I hope that these negotiations will lead in a good direction and that we can introduce into Romania medicines that people need. We will give the money anyway. We have seen all kinds of speculations and discussions here as well. Things are very simple. Whether it suits us or not, today we have this invoice (…). We have two options, we pay the money and bring a vaccine that we destroy or we try a team effort (…) so that this money or at least a large percentage of this amount we can introduce some new medicines for people”, declared Alexandru Rogobete.
